The executive director of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) has called on journalists to verify information first before going to press.

Sanna Dahaba was speaking at a recent presser held at the agency head office in Kanifing.

His remarks came on the heels of the July flash floods that generated wide media coverage.

"Fighting misinformation, that one I leave it with the journalists. I think every journalist before you publish information, it should be verified."

Many believe that fake news spreads faster and much wider than real news, something that still poses a challenge to communities in The Gambia.

The advent of social media also poses a great challenge to communities especially in curbing fake news as some people sit in the comfort of their homes and post contents that are either misinformation and disinformation on social media. This was evident during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, where fake news became a norm and daily lives of some internet users.

Meanwhile, data has shown that there were four hundred and thirty thousand (430, 000) social media users in The Gambia as of January 2021, which equates to about 17% of the entire population, making misinformation and fake news widespread and difficult to tackle.